Land Grants The Spanish explorer, Cabeza de Vaca, was the first white man to cross this area of Texas. He was part of an expedition led by Panfllo de Navarez, who left Spain with instructions to land in Florida and explore the country. This group later sailed from Florida for Mexico, but their vessels were wrecked or lost along the Texas Coast. Cabeza de Vaca’s small vessel was wrecked on Galveston Island in November 1528. He became a trader and traveled in 1584 from Galveston in a southwesterly direction, through the Coastal Bend, crossed what is now Bee County, then turned northwest into El Paso and New Mexico, in search of gold and silver. They encountered buffalo, which Cabeza de Vaca described as “cows”. The French explorer, La Salle, landed at Matagorda Bay in 1685. He had intended to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River. However, a Gulf of Mexico storm drove him to the Texas coast where he established a colony, Fort Saint Louis, several miles inland. La Salle was killed in 1687 and disease and Indians killed the rest of the colonists. The Indians also destroyed the fort. In 1685, other Spanish explorers came to the area and reported the possibilities for farming and ranching between the Blanco and Papalote Creeks. Carlos Martinez, one of Spanish King Phillip’s warriors, was given a Spanish land grant that extended into the northern part of our county. (His entire family was killed when Mexico revolted against Spain in 1821). Another Spaniard, Don Martin de Leon arrived in 1805 and established a large ranch between the Aransas and Nueces Rivers. In 1821, when Mexico became free from Spain, the new government in Mexico took away all Spanish land grants thus dispossessing Don de Leon from his ranch. A movement was led by Augustin de Iturbide against Spanish rule, and in 1821 Mexico broke away from Spain. Texas became part of a new Empire of Mexico, with Iturbide as the monarch. Soon, however, a new rebellion broke out ousting Iturbide, who was allowed to go to Europe provided he never return to Mexico. A year later he tried to come back and fight for his throne, but was arrested and shot. During Iturbide’s ten-month reign, several attempts were made to colonize the coastal regions of Texas, without results. After the province of Texas was joined with Coahuila in 1824 forming the provisional state of Coahuila and Texas, its congress passed a colonization law on March 24, 1825, designed to bring people to the region who “would promote the cultivation of its fertile lands, the raising and multiplication of stock, and the progress of the arts and commerce. The colonization law gave “empresarios” (land agents) certain areas in which to locate colonists. The agents did not own the land, but for every one hundred families they brought to settle in Texas, they would earn five leagues (22,540 acres) and five labors (885 acres) of land. The law also stipulated that empresarios must have approval of State and Federal Government for colonization if any territory lying within twenty border leagues of the boundary of any foreign nation (about fifty miles) or within ten leagues (twenty-five miles) of the coast. Four men were given the title of empresario — John McMullen and James McGloin, who established the San Patricia colony; and James Power and James Hewetson who established the Refugio colony. The four land agents were natives of Ireland, but Power and Hewetson became naturalized citizens of Mexico. Under
the original colonization law passed by the Mexican government, all settlers
had to be natives of Ireland and members of the Roman Catholic Church. (This
was prompted by reports from the United States that the many Irish immigrants
in New York and other eastern states were industrious, honest and law-abiding
citizens, and it was felt that people of this nationality would become
outstanding citizens of Mexico.) However, James Power persuaded the officials
to amend the law and permit natives of the United States, France, England and
Germany to settle in Texas. In a history of Bee County written by Grace Bauer
for the 1958 Centennial celebration, she named three families from the United
States who took advantage of this special permission: Robert
Carlisle, Isaac Robinson and James Douglas. |
